Ok so this is bugging me. The gold dollar coin was minted until 1889. Morgan silver dollars were minted starting 1878. In 1880 we also had a dollar bill. So, which was used for day to day life? Let's say I went to a store to purchase $20 worth of goods, would it of been more common for me to use a $20 gold coin, a $20 bill, or 20 silver dollars? What about my change, did gold coin get handed out as change, was silver change more common, or was it paper money?
I don't really know, but I would guess that gold was more common in the West than in the East. I think that it would be most common to spend the 20 silver dollars, though.
Transactions such as this would likely have used the paper note, but in the western frontier hard money was relatively more common.
Yeah lc said it right in 1880 $20 was in the area of a years pay for the average man or at least several months at the least.
Way too low! In the 1890s, a year's wage for a common workman (55-60 hours a week) was in the $300 to $600 range, or $6 to $12 per week. Remember, there were no income or sales taxes at this time. Rural areas would range closer to $300 unless room and board were included, which was common. You can get some idea of retail prices by browsing through the 1902 Sears Catalog, a (replica) edition of great popularity about 30 years ago; most libraries have a copy.
